As you will have hopefully seen from the website we have just finished two jam-packed days of Art. It is always fascinating to see how much the children do in just two days. There has been some spectacular pieces of art. When I asked some of the children today to comment on the last two days, here are just a few:

“Arts Days is not all about the work you produce, it is about enjoying yourself and having fun.” Euan.

“All the adults work really hard to make this possible.” Ben.

“It was fascinating to learn about the Indian culture.” Youssef.

We cannot wait to see the main exhibition foyer. I’m sure your children will help find their work if you can make it to the Open Session.

Last week in maths we were learning about division and solving word problems (long division). Originally, we found that division was probably one of the trickiest concepts to master; when discussing our learning with each other. We did happen to find that it becomes so much easier when other concepts are secure; such as times tables/repeated subtraction. We had to persevere in order to succeed but as we worked on it we could see better results. We then moved onto area and perimeter, at the beginning of this week. By learning algebra at the beginning of the term, we managed to make the link to using formulas with calculating shapes.Once you master a way in to solve maths problems you are one step closer to achieving.

With only 2 weeks remaining children need to keep an eye on the home learning grid. This week I have given the children the chance to utilise their time and push on with reaching the target of 4 pieces to be completed for this half term.

As preparation for our annual E-safety day, we have been reminded about the ways in which we can stay safe, whist being online. The children were very knowledgeable about giving the top tips, as this is something we have covered through the years. Children knew the age restrictions, which is also a valuable piece of information, as they begin to think about ways to move safely from primary school to secondary. At school we are constantly reminded, living in an ever-evolving world of technology and social media, of the importance of staying safe. By being kept up to speed with events and discussing this topic regularly as a class, within different parts of the curriculum; we hope children can see the importance behind this. I hope the children find time to discuss things with you at home.

Even though the weather has been a little chilly over the last few weeks we have still managed to get up to the school field to participate in our weekly tag rugby lessons. In just a short number of weeks I have seen, alongside Mr Smith, the change in pupil’s ability and raising their skills. I do always remind the children to take home the muddy kits, so that they do not surprise you with a kit caked in ingrained mud.

To make connections within the curriculum, we have been looking to improve our skills in non-fictional writing. This is quite a skill, as we have been working on not just taking small extracts from books- as we know this could breach copyright. That we need to read what we find out and aim to put it into our own words. It was interesting to see that one of the areas to look at developing is the choice of vocabulary. We understand that in order to broaden our use of language some of us need to read more and use our magpie skills- adding good vocab to the comments sections of our home school reading records.

Over the next few weeks we shall be returning to narrative writing, exploring a range of texts, (which are mentioned on the curriculum leaflet) and identify the features that mark them as belonging to a particular genre. We will read, compare, and begin to evaluate extracts from texts written in the same genre. This will then hopefully help us to draw on our prior knowledge of different genres to create a mixed genre story. From this we will aim to explore the way in which a sense of character is built up from a range of clues. Use these clues to create character descriptions, writing in the role of a peer of the central character. As part of our ongoing learning we shall create a word bank from the texts we read.

In Science we have been fascinated by how the circulatory system works. It is hard to imagine what goes on in our body without giving it a second thought. As well as learning the complex process we are broadening our scientific vocabulary – this will come in useful when heading off to secondary.

I am sure the children will be tired from all the fun this week – I know I am.

Well a short week with only two days in school. It was lovely seeing everyone back and looking refreshed, ready for the term ahead. Mrs Allen and I would like to thank all those for the lovely cards and presents that were handed in at the end of last term.

We were busy on the first day back, writing work out for a new display. I have been so impressed with handwriting. I’m sure it won’t be long until I give out some more fountain pen permits.

By now you should have received the new term’s curriculum overview and homework grid. Last term a number of pupils displayed their learning powers by taking responsibility and showing independence in selecting the chosen pieces and logging them in their home school contact books, which was lovely to see. Remember this half term requires only 4 pieces. Children have been reminded that they can make good use of homework club in order to complete these activities.

On Thursday afternoon we took time to observe the pictures of the yeast experiment that we carried out on the last week of term and discussed the results. We shall of course be starting a new topic next week.

On Friday we were straight back in with our weekly mental arithmetic quizzes. These shall be happening every Friday morning. After, we had a lovely day making our Christingles, which you will no doubt have seen on the website. Hopefully they arrived home in one piece. We then spent time putting our writing skills to the test by generating a set of detailed instructions to accompany our practical task. It was lovely to see all the finished Christingles at our Collective Worship with Revd Ginni.

I may even see some of you fairly soon as I’m heading to church for the Christingle service. I better get going don’t want to be late.

See you all on Monday !

Mrs Stewart

Reminders

Full PE kit as we shall be taking part in Tag Rugby this half term up on the field on Monday afternoons. I have suggested that the children take their kits home after this session to avoid overly dirty kits. They shall need to have them back in for Wednesday pm as we shall be doing indoor gym.

Please try to ensure you have your kit and that it is labelled.

Home school contact books

Spellings and homework shall begin again on Tuesday 9th.

Clubs letters to be returned before deadline. I shall be taking Sam Learning club which gives a great opportunity for the children to work together. During this club we also look at strategies on how to answer SATs questions and look over some topics that need further work. A healthy snack and drink are also provided to help fuel the brain.

Those attending the Royal Albert Hall please can I have the t-shirt slips back in by Tuesday at the very latest.

I wanted to start by saying a huge well done to Class 6 for last week and their help during the Christmas Fair. Everyone worked hard on designing some great games, which seemed to go down really well.

So what has happened over this week?

Monday started off with testing our weekly spellings alongside our dictation. We then went on to look at ways in which to improve our writing, whilst improving our knowledge of GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling). As part of our early morning work this week, we have been taking a festive picture and then having to create 5 different sentences to form a paragraph. You may think that is easy but not when the sentences have to demonstrate specific skills.

For example: 1. Contain a preposition expressing time. 2. subordinate clause. 3. contain a proper noun. 4. metaphor. 5. exclamation sentence. These are just a few. We also discussed that this could be something that we could have a go as part of our daily reading. This time identifying these as we read, then logging a few examples in our home school contact books. Following on from this we got to work and paired up to write to the Governors, inviting them to our annual Christmas dinner. Today we received a number of replies and look forward to Christmas dinner on Wednesday. It was also our last day of swimming this week so no swimming kits required for Monday.

We have moved away this week from The Spiderwick Chronicles but have had plenty of opportunities to write across the curriculum and for a number of purposes. Having had so many preparations with the lead up to Christmas we decided to look at how the local church and school prepare for this festive time of year. As we talked and listed all the events that happen, we were quite shocked at how much goes on, in such a short period. We decided to then put this together as an explanatory extended piece of writing, which our Golden Chair pupil shared today in celebration assembly.

You will be pleased to hear that we also managed to record and finalise our dance routine on Wednesday. As we have had a few people off, we are going to try and record again hopefully next week, as we are all really pleased with the finished product and would love everyone to be in the recording. In French this week, Ms Massie had the children designing Christmas jumpers. They had to label their designs in French and discuss what they were like to each other. Some great designs!

All the Year 6 children loved watching the dress rehearsal of the Class 1 nativity ‘Shine Star Shine’. I was also very pleased with the group of year 6 children who were asked to narrate the script. I still find it hard as it only seems like yesterday that they were Class 1… and yes were with me.

In Maths we have been persevering with our work on geometry. We have looked at the understanding of circles and calculating the diameter and radius in various ways. This led us onto calculating the exterior and interior angles in regular polygons. I have to say a big well done for using your learning powers Class 6.

It has not been all work and no fun. It has been like Santa’s little workshop at times through the week, as we have been busy making Christmas items ready to bring home to our family and also sorting and delivering the daily Christmas post.

Well lots more to look forward to next week and shall put these on the reminders. It has been lovely to see another great range of homework being produced over this half term and remember to keep a check on how many you have managed. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Mrs Stewart

Reminders

Christmas Carol Service in church on Tuesday 2:15pm

Christmas Table decoration to be brought in on Wednesday morning (remember this will count as one of your homework grid tasks )

Christmas Party Food contributions will be discussed on Monday and children will write what they have chosen to do in their Home School Contact books.

Last week was as busy as ever in Class 6 and now that we are approaching the beginning of Advent- it will soon get a lot busier. We continued to work around our Spiderwick Chronicles but shift our focus and attention onto different styles of writing. We retrieved information whilst reading, referring to more than one place in the text and from this wrote a recount as a ‘boggart’. Some of us turning to other creatures. Next we looked at writing a radio broadcast. Within this particular piece, we focused our attention onto using adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases. I used examples of the children's writing to model marking and further explain the purpose of the purple polishing pen, when aiming to improve a piece. The vocabulary within this particular book is brilliant and putting our skills to the test of understanding words in context has really helped us. Next week, we shall be continuing to make precise vocabulary choices in writing a letter to Mrs Peddie about a ‘changeling’. As the week progresses we shall analyse, and explain the impact of, author’s techniques and use of language to develop a point of view and ‘authorial voice’ in our writing.

In maths we focused on 2d shape and found it quite challenging. Once we polished up on our specific maths vocabulary such as: adjacent, perpendicular, polygon, quadrilateral (to name only a few), and of course the various names and characteristics of each shape, we were on our way. This moved us nicely onto 3D shape, which we started on Friday afternoon. We definitely jumped into the deep end. As you may know, the hall gets decorated with hoops. One of our Yr 6 hoops involves 3D shapes. We discussed on how much learning we would gain from just making a shape from a photocopy and decided it would be much more rewarding to be able to say I built my shape from scratch- measured lengths and angles to create it. So that is our mission, as well as carrying out maths lessons on understanding circle measurements. Plus pie and not the one we eat.

As you may have seen in the newsletter we had some visitors in on Tuesday from the Diocese. It was lovely to show them our learning about Christingles as they looked around our class. We have been focusing our attentions onto Christian symbols of light and of course next week is the first Sunday of Advent.

Talking about preparations we were able to put our skills of democracy into action as we thought about the annual Christmas fair games. Now that we are in our groups, we are underway to creating some interesting games, which you will be able to have a go at next Friday. It is lovely to see all the powers being used in projects like this.

We are really pleased that we have finally choreographed our class dance to the track ‘Bounce’. With the remaining weeks our aim is to get it to performance stage. Along the way, we will video this in order to evaluate sections and see where we need to improve.

In Science we collaborated as we did a more practical task of sorting certain groups of animals by creating a group classification key. It made us use your questioning power for sure.

To finish off the week we all loved Class 5’s assembly and congratulations to class 4 for winning the tidy cup.

See you all soon and ready to go tomorrow morning.

Mrs Stewart

Reminders:

Home school contact. Remember to think of interesting comments and the types of skills we cover and think about at school. Magpie vocabulary. You can write these as well as adults.

PE kits/ Swimming kits – please make sure these are in school and named. Also remember those warm clothes incase we head outside.

Remember to keep an eye on your homelearning grid work. Lots of beautiful pieces have been brought in. You can always check the working wall to see what you need to do.

Thank you for all the generous donations for Children In Need. School council were busy collecting this morning. It was lovely to see so many children with spotty accessories. Thank you to Mrs Harrington –Smith, who also provided the children with dotty biscuits for school dinners. There were even some spotty cake donations from Class 5 - yum, yum!

I do hope that everyone had an enjoyable morning on Thursday and that the learning did not scare too many of you. The children were so keen to share and have you in. Hopefully, it gave you another chance to see how busy and hard-working your children are. It was a lovely atmosphere and glad so many of you could make it. It won’t be long till we meet again at parent appointments. Today your child should have handed you an appointment time.

So, what else have been learning?

In English we have started to look at the beautifully illustrated Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World around you by T. Diterlizzi and H. Black. The book provides information about the life, habits and habitats of the denizens of the Invisible World. I was really impressed with some of the poems created on our Family day, which the children have worked on and edited.

This has become another favourite book of Class 6 , as it looks at habitats and more importantly links a little with classification, which we are looking at in Science. We had a few activities based around classification on offer on Thursday. To start us off on this topic, we took time to ensure that we could identify all the various classification groups. It was great to see the children using so many different ways of presenting their understanding.

In maths we have focused our attention on to area of triangles, parallelograms and finding the area of composite shapes. We have been using the different formulas, which will prepare us for when we look at algebra a bit later this term.

With the school being so busy, Class 6 went to the field and tried out our Tag Rugby skills on Wednesday afternoon. It was a great session and hope to do this again soon.

In RE we have turned our attention now to preparing for Christmas. Don’t panic, no Christmas carols yet, promise. We have been looking at the religious meaning of Advent. Were you aware that Advent in Latin means ‘Coming’? Do you know the colours or meaning behind the candles on an advent wreath?

Well I’m off to mark all the wonderful work that has been produced this week. Have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday.

Reminders: PE Kits. Children please can you try to make sure you have full kits in school. Even though it is getting a little colder we still may go outside and need to be prepared.

I want to say a huge well done to everyone in Class 6. I have been so proud with the way the children have applied themselves to assessment week. The amount of different learning powers I have seen in action has been brilliant. It would have been extremely difficult to have chosen the person to receive the effort badge this week.

Alongside assessments we have also been enjoying other areas of the curriculum.

On Monday the children went swimming and later on in the week (Wednesday) we continued to choreograph our next new sports dance. We have been really thinking about the different ways in which to structure the dance. We are aiming to record the final performance nearer to the end of term.

On Tuesday with Mrs Archer the children have started to turn their attention to the next art project based on puffins. The children worked on detailed sketches, which look amazing. I can’t wait to see the clay sculptures.

We have been looking at some deep questions within RE and using our creative skills and learning powers to produce our learning. The first lesson was, ‘Will I make a difference to the world in my lifetime?’ The discussion in class was extremely interesting and some fantastic ideas. We have even been planning a way in which we can demonstrate the value of ‘generosity’ as a class, and look to giving to the local community. This led us nicely on to the Big Question: God of three parts – what does this mean? It is so lovely to see all the different and very individual interpretations of this. As this is a whole school big question I shall be putting up a display of children’s learning, across the school.

Young Worship led a beautiful remembrance assembly this morning to the whole school. Everyone displaying the value of respect and demonstrating that our school values are with us at all times even though we focus on different values each half term.

Next week is of course Family Week. The children love sharing their learning with a member of their family. Class 6 is a morning session, which will consist of two parts; a range of typical activities that we cover in English and Maths but will also include activities throughout the curriculum.

I do hope you have a lovely weekend. Homework will be given out next week, starting with spellings on Tuesday. Thank you for the continued daily reading. I enjoy reading the comments that are made. I have even seen children being organised and recording their choices from the homework grid. This is valuable learning and great for transitioning to secondary school. Please remember to have these reading records signed by an adult.

I do hope everyone enjoyed the half term. We were straight back in on Monday morning and some of the Class were out at Princess Helena with the choir. The children really enjoyed themselves and today in choir rehearsal, could still remember the songs that we learnt. It was quite an exhausting day as the children were taught a range of different songs to memorise and perform in the concert in the afternoon. I would like to thank those parents who came along and supported us. I was very proud of the way in which we performed our piece. Do take a look at some of the pictures on the website. Well done!

For those non choir children they spent the morning getting on with the learning that had been left for them and it was lovely to see what you managed to do, later that evening when I returned to school.

In English we have been continuing with Berlie Doherty’s ‘Street Child’. This week we found and discussed about what it must be like at the workhouse. From the text, we gave our opinions but used the text as evidence. In Chapter 5, we looked closely at what it was like at the workhouse for Jim. Chapter 6 , saw the introduction of a new character – Tip. In this lesson we focused on finding things out about Tip-using the text. We did a lot of analysing, seeing how Doherty introduced the character. The plot is becoming quite tense, as Jim is planning to escape. We grabbed the opportunity to have a class discussion and debate on whether this was a good or bad idea for Jim. Next week, as part of assessment week, we shall be undertaking an independent write, having a go at writing the next part of the story. Some of us are keen to read the sequel ‘Far from Home’ – the sisters of Street Child.

In maths we have been looking at short and long multiplication. We have realised that the more effort we can put into our times tables this will help our accuracy in solving problems. We also looked at percentages. All of the work before half term on decimals and fractions really helped us in progressing with this area.

In science we are finishing off our last terms topic, with an investigation and next week with a little assessment. We did find a really useful simulation programme which let us create various circuits that we had already planned to carry out. We are using the computers to record our results. We spent this afternoon learning how to also print screen snapshots of our findings and label our diagrams.

As it is a new half term, we have also started to get to work on a new choreographed dance. It is linked with sport. This will involve all of us, and then breaking into groups, and returning to whole sections. In our first lesson this week we managed to create the chorus and so next week groups are starting on their sections.

In RE today we were discussing and exploring our views considering the difficulties for people of different religious beliefs, and how everyone can be understanding and respectful of different beliefs in our community. The children were very mature in their responses and showed their understanding of school and British values off. It was an ideal opportunity to get us into the frame of mind for our RE Big Question, during assessment week - God of three parts – What does this mean?

I would like to thank those children who were part of the Reading Evening videos. I’m sure it gave parents, who came along, some fresh ideas on how to read at home with you. It was a lovely evening led by Miss Ingle. I’m very happy to also see in Home School Contact books that a number of children read over the half term.

As you will have seen from the newsletter or website that it is assessment week, next week. Children please do not worry and my best advice would be to get plenty rest and try to get to bed at reasonable times and remember to have your breakfast. You need the fuel to keep you going.

Our next event coming up is Family Week and look forward to seeing some of you then. Also well done to those children who have started to organise their new selection of choices from the homework grid that came out on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend! Remember you still have time if you would like to donate either some individual items or a box of gifts to support our Shoebox Appeal. Boxes will be collected on Monday.

This week we have been introduced to Sam Learning. Every child in Class 6 created their account. It was good to do this as we could then apply our online safety learning when creating secure passwords etc. We were all very keen to get started and can see how we earn points and set each other challenges to complete. I think it is fun and it is educating at the same time. Homework club was very busy this week. It can be challenging and difficult to answer in some activities. No doubt a lot of us will be online over the half term.

Science

In Science we have come to almost the end of our learning about electricity and circuits. Over the half term we have learnt about how to make a circuit work, how this can be drawn as a circuit diagram. We have recapped on our prior knowledge of conductors and insulators, what other components that can be used within circuits and finally about parallel and series circuits. This week we were given the challenge to devise our own experiment from prior learning. Practical science can be great fun but it is also valuable to have the written work as this can allow others to have a go at some of the experiments. This week involved looking at how we structure our experimental writing.

(written by Mercedes)

Maths

In Maths this week we have been focusing on fractions and decimals. We started the week by adding and subtracting fractions, which meant we could test our understanding of finding the common denominator. We then went on to looking at multiplying and dividing decimals. We have certainly been drawing on our learning powers to ensure we look for efficient and quick methods of calculating. Actually, some of us now feel more confident overall as we are seeing more links to previous learning.

PE

Our topic of dance has been great fun. This week we managed to record each group’s performance and then spoke about the positives and the areas for development. We had a lot of positive feedback from Mrs Stewart, Mr Jefferies and Mr Smith. Each dance routine was different and could see various techniques being used in some- skills such as canon, motifs, travel.

English

This week saw us looking at the style of narrative writing. Alongside the reading of ‘Holes’ we are now also reading Berlie Doherty’s novel ‘Street Child’. This particular story is a gripping adventure based on a true story of the orphan who inspired Doctor Barnardo to set up his famous children’s refuge. This week we have also used drama as a technique to explore key moments in the plot. Alongside this we have found evidence from the text (or a visual image) to support a point of view. Today saw us writing independently- to write as a character in role. This particular piece of writing required us to write consistently in the first person. Not only that, we needed to use emotive language to create empathy and dilemma for our chosen character.

(written by Rosa)

Thank you girls for your blog today. These were the highlights of your weeks learning. Here are just a few extra bits.

What a lovely way to end the half term with the most amazing cake sale. Thank you to all the families for their wonderful and yummy donations. I’d also like to thank Mrs Da Silva for taking the time to come in and stay after school to help sell cakes, with a group of year 6 children.

It was also lovely to see some of you at the SATs evening on Wednesday. I do hope you found it useful and managed to take some of the resources on offer. A few of you have expressed interest in the small study guides and so will look into putting in an order and keep you updated. If you were unable to attend, I shall be sending a copy of the information that was discussed on that evening home as a pack. These will be available after half term.

Thank you for the swift return of choir slips, as the members of choir are off on the first day back to Princess Helena’s for a singing workshop day. From previous years, this has been a great day. At choir rehearsals today I did remind the children to learn their words over half term.

Finally, I would just like to thank all of Class 6 for the wonderful and creative pieces of home learning that they have provided over this first half term. Each child selected their favourite piece to take to assembly today. It truly was a celebration. Looking along the line it was also lovely to see so many proud faces, as all of the buddies in Class 1 stood to show the work they had produced. I cannot believe as it only seems like yesterday Class 6 were standing- as reception. I know a lot of you shall be making those final choices for secondary places as the deadline quickly approaches.

I hope you all have a great half term and come back ready and refreshed for some more fun learning.

You have all worked so hard this week to pull together the work that you shared today in your first ever Class 6 assembly. A moment in the history of the school. I am so proud of you all and thought you were brilliant. I would also like to thank the parents and families that came to watch, along with Nicola from Hetties Helpers Hedgehog Rescue. We hope you all enjoyed it.

It will not be long till we meet again. This Wednesday is of course the SATs evening at school. If you have even had a child who went through SATs last year it is always good to come along as it is forever changing. I know a lot of parents have replied and yes children you can come along too.

So apart from a Class assembly what have we been up to this week?

In English we kept our learning around hedgehogs but took on a different style of writing. We looked more in detail at the skills of persuasive writing of advertisements. You heard some of these today in our assembly and may have noticed a few more on the display in the main foyer. Keeping up with our learning powers the children could change the style, so from a written radio script to TV ad - or a poster to a online advert. The language required for writing like this, is so important. We do hope you liked hearing them, some great expressive readers.

In Maths we started the week with ordering fractions and by the end of the week were adding fractions. We have some lovely new maths books from which we have been working from which are quite challenging but our powers help us to get through it. Next week we shall be moving on and making connections between fractions, decimals and percentages.

In Dance we have loved seeing a number of presentations from children as part of their homework grids. It is so lovely to see their confidence blossoming and everyone in class is always so supportive. Next week we shall be recording our group dances which have definitely progressed across the half term.

I also know that lots of children are also working hard at the swimming pool each Monday afternoon. Please try to remember to ensure that your child’s clothing and swimming kit are clearly labelled.

In RE we had time to research and find out about the work of Christian and Islamic Aid. This was something that proved a little challenging at first for a few of us, but we persevered and learnt quite a lot. We discussed how it was also beneficial that we knew more about the global community that we live in.

With Mrs Archer the children are producing some amazing oil pastel replicas of Steve Browns ‘Highland Cow ‘images. The care and attention to detail has been truly stunning and I can’t wait for them to be finished, and displayed.

As this first half term draws to a close (1 week left) I have been very impressed and grateful for all the reading that has taken place and the responsibility and ownership that the children have shown in their learning. I will be explaining how valuable reading is at the SATs evening and of course come along to hear more at the Reading Evening after half term.

It was lovely to hear the children’s thoughts and feelings with the new homework grid. Mrs Peddie praised the children for such beautiful pieces of work. A number of children have now completed all 6 for this half term. For those who have a few (or more) to go you still have a week to get these pieces handed in. A lot of strategies were shared and top tips on time management were discussed, which will help with the new grid, which will be released after half term. I have been super impressed and some hidden talents out there.

I hope the football squad play well today at the cup match, as I’m sure they will. I can’t wait to hear the match report next week.

No doubt everyone has had the best day with the amazing hedgehog visit. We were so lucky as some of us had never seen a real hedgehog. Such a lovely way to end a busy week.

In science we have been learning about 2 different types of circuits; a series circuit and a parallel circuit. I found out that a parallel circuit is normally used in a house. For example- if appliances were part of a series circuit, when we would switch one on, we would switch everything on. Whereas with a parallel, if one item is on or a bulb was to blow, other appliances would still be able to work.

In Maths we have been learning about squared numbers and fractions (in particular making the links with common multiples and factors). A few of us found it quite challenging but used our powers to get us through. Next week we shall continue with the theme of fractions but move onto adding and subtracting/ multiplying and dividing.

For those of us in choir we have been busy starting to learn new songs which are linked to science. (Written by Max)

In Class 6 this week we’ve been learning about the features of non-chronological report writing and in particular focusing on Hedgehogs. Using our learning powers, we found the content for our reports by using the Ipads and more importantly from the interesting facts that Nicola told us today. We have taken the time to plan and learn how to organise our information in order to interest and keep the reader engaged. We will be displaying our work in school so do keep an eye out for it.

In Art we have been creating Highland Cows by the artist Steven Brown. His technique and style is very colourful and amusing. It was a challenge but every pupil managed to complete a detailed sketch.

In dance we’ve been discussing our heartbeat and how it is important to warm up before exercise. Each week, 3 pupils are selected to lead a warm up at the beginning of our session. We are certainly working hard to get our routines to a polished performance. One of our class mates, as part of our homework grid, performed an emotional and moving dance in front of Mrs Peddie, Mrs Stewart and the rest of the class. It was truly amazing and fitted perfectly to the chosen track.

Of course we finished the week by having the pleasure of meeting Nicola, a member of Hetty’s Helpers. We also got the chance to meet three little ‘hoglets’. Our generous donations will help many hedgehogs survive hibernation and be rescued in the future. Look out for the wonderful photographs that Mrs Peddie took. (Written by Liv)

Thank you for a really interesting blog. I would just like to add how lovely it was with our exciting visit from Hetty’s Helpers. I do hope parents and carers will be able to join us on Friday 13th for our Class assembly. You will find out why we needed the books from my blog last week then if your child has not already told you. We have been putting ideas together ready to share with you all. Also thank you for the reply slips to the Sats evening which will be held in the hall on Wednesday 18th October.

Here are a few weekly reminders: swimming kits.

Homework in on Monday.

Spelling Test.

Home School contact checks.

Once again well done to those children receiving awards and thank you for the amazing range of pieces of homework that have been brought in recently. I do hope you all have a restful weekend and see you all on Monday.

Morning Class 6. If possible could you please bring in an old, unwanted book for next week. If the book could be less than 100 pages but no more than 110, that would be great. All will be revealed tomorrow. Remember, the book needs to be unwanted. If you have any spare and you would like to donate that would also be great. Please do not worry if you do not have any.

Hi all. Hope you’ve all had a brilliant week because in Class 6 we know we have. From Harvest Festival to National Poetry Day we’ve all worked our socks off. On Thursday all the children from across the school brought in their kind offerings to provide people with lovely food, fruit and vegetables. The congregation at St Ippolyts church was led by Revd Ginni and was packed with parents who were deeply moved by the service.

In Geography we are continuing to learn about the Scottish Isles and understanding how living on an island can affect the way of life. We were looking at house prices and population figures. I was looking at the population figures of Ireland, Britain and Scotland. I was looking at the massive difference between Scotland and England. Scotland (5.29 million) and England (53.01 million) and London (8.788 million).We then started to use the I pads to conduct our own research on a particular island of the Scottish Isles. We will be continuing to do so next week.

In RE we were studying and learning about the different beliefs of religious and non- religious groups in our local area. It has been quite tricky at times and we have been made to think quite deeply which is good. It also helps us to understand and respect people for who they are. (Euan M)

This week in Maths, on Tuesday in particular we were learning to solve problems using the backwards method. Here is an example of this

I think of a number. I subtract 25, add 2. I then multiply by 2. My answer is 154.

So to solve this you do 154 divided by 2 = 77 – 2 = 75 + 25 = 100. The answer is 100. We then learnt to work forwards in order to check our calculations. This technique has come in handy for some of our mental arithmetic questions on a Wednesday.

This week in English we have been writing Harvest and Freedom poems. Our harvest poems were based around a picture entitled ‘Harvest Moon ‘by Samuel Palmer. We chose ‘Freedom’ as it was National Poetry Day on Thursday and this was this year’s theme. We spent time planning and looking at poetic techniques. We were then encouraged to use our learning powers to create interesting poems in any style, but as we are older to try and get out of the habit of making our poems rhyme or choose an acrostic style. We will have a display up of our most current English work, for you to see a selection, for the Open Session on Monday.

Computing

Within computing we have been focusing a great deal on online respect. Today we were trying to understand how information is shared without permission. We talked about how it would or could make us feel and steps and strategies of how to remain safe. Next week we shall be reviewing the language and style used in a range of digital communication. (Curtis)

Blog by Euan and Curtis

Thanks boys a great blog. I’m not sure what else to add but a huge well done for a fun week. Congratulations to those receiving rewards and well done to all the footballers for the match last night at Whitehill. Good Luck to the girls playing tomorrow at the rally.

This week Class 6 have been working exceptionally well! We would also like to thank Luke Temple for visiting our school. It has been really exciting having a real author visit. Luke Temple gave a thrilling and inspiring look into his recent novel ‘The Ghost Lord Returns’. Luke has been to or school before but his enthusiasm shows us that we can all be authors, if we really want to. Some of the children purchased signed copies of books and are no doubt looking forward to reading them over the weekend.

In English this week we have been editing and improving our diary entries and letters from the perspective of the main character, Stanley Yelnats. You may not have realised but the author, Louis Sachar has used Stanley, written backwards to create his surname. Using or prediction skills within reading we also think that the character ‘Armpit’ (real name Theodore) may be because when you sound out Theodore, we can hear and see a little connection to the word ‘odour’. Therefore this may be the reason for ‘Armpit’. Mrs Stewart thought this was a good use of our making connections learning power. Look out for our display during Open Session.

This week in PE we were put through our paces by understanding the need for a proper warm up before dancing. On reflection to our session last week we needed to work on gaining ideas to make our dances a little bit more interesting. We watched a few examples of some dance groups carrying out dances and had a go at copying. We all worked very hard. Mr Jefferies and Mrs Stewart also had a go at joining in with the new dance moves. As the song says, “We’re all in this together”.

In Maths we have been concentrating on improving our understanding of decimals. It was a little challenging having to place the decimals into the correct area of the Venn diagram but we did persevere. We also looked at more efficient ways to solve problems mentally. There are a number of calculation strategies out there, for example: place value- digit position, place value-use known facts, equal sum /difference, regrouping, one/zero effect and doubling and halving. When giving our verbal reasoning and trying to write our ideas we have looked at using various sentence starters. Take a look:

For the calculation … I would use… strategy because…

I know …so I can apply it to … because…

…strategy would be inefficient for this calculation because…

Remembering to talk about individual digits within calculations helped us to consider the efficiency of each strategy.

In Geography we had the atlases out and took a closer look at the Scottish Isles. As part of using our learning powers we had to draw our own maps instead of being given a pre-printed one. It is more challenging to use tracing paper. We were also given the opportunity to present our learning in whatever way we liked as long as it showed that we were beginning to be able to locate certain islands in Scotland.

Our art this week continued the Highland cow theme. We were drawing with charcoal and chalk and trying to incorporate shadow effects.

We now have a large display in class where we can see all the different areas of homework that classmates have chosen from the new grid. So many different things.

Today we worked collaboratively with Class 1. We were pictured with our buddies and have created a small shield to sum up some of the characteristics of them. Do keep an eye out for this at Open Session.

Blog above written by Harriet and Daniel

Well done! Now to just add in those little reminders.

Homework to be handed in on Monday and be ready for your spelling test too.

Remember your swimming kits please. If possible could ear-rings be removed, as this helps to speed up things and not lose any lovely ear-rings.

Harvest Service on Thursday 9:15 am in church. Remember donations are greatly received.

Home School Contact books being signed off again on Monday. Try to get all five sessions as it leads to important Housepoints.

Thank you for another fun week of learning Class 6. Congratulations to all of the children receiving a reward in Celebration Assembly. Our next target…The Tidy Cup.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and feel refreshed ready to go next week. Thank you very much for all the yummy shortbread and tablet.

In English we have had a ball. We are on such a fun topic and are really enjoying reading ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar. As we have been studying the book carefully and discussing the author’s intent in each chapter we feel we are understanding the text more. So many of us even have our own copies now. This week we have been writing a diary entry from Stanley’s point of view, based on his first experiences of digging at Camp Green Lake. I feel that Chapter 7 is one of the best chapters of the book so far. (Travis)

In RE our topic is ‘Belief in Action’. Our first session generated a great deal of quite deep discussion. We have started to find out about the different beliefs of religious and non-religious communities in our local area. Mrs Stewart really challenged us to draw on our learning powers by asking us questions such as: What are beliefs? What beliefs do you think we all share? What shared beliefs do we have in school? Do you think having ‘faith’ is different to having ‘beliefs’? It needed a great deal of perseverance.

PE is one of our favourite subjects as a class. Even if dance is not everyone’s favourite area, we are truly making sure that we collaborate and have worked hard to put our fears of dancing in front of others behind us. The moves that some people have created are ‘cool’.

In Maths we have been concentrating on improving our speed when tackling a range of mental maths questions, which is going to really help us feel prepared for what lies ahead when it’s SAT’s. We have been working on multiplying and dividing with decimals. It’s important to see these kinds of questions in a number of different ways. Not only that, we need to see that we can answer in many different ways - verbal and written reasoning, grid method, questions as clues.

Electricity is our focus in Science, as you might know if you have read the school curriculum leaflet. We have been given the opportunity, which we all like, to express our ideas in our own way. As well as sharing our understanding of electricity we have be linking this with measuring electricity (mainly voltage of appliances) and broadening our scientific vocabulary when writing our reasoning.

In Humanities (mainly Geography) we have been learning about Scotland and more specifically next session the Scottish Isles. This has linked in with our art as we have sketched and looked at work by the artist Steven Brown, who uses Highland cows as his focus.

French this week with Mrs Massie was great fun learning about hobbies. We had to use our skills or listening but also take the plunge to recall in French.

Finally, we were set our first piece of homework. This was a reading comprehension which extends our knowledge of science and electricity awareness. Mrs Stewart handed us the new chart of homework and we spent time discussing what and how this should be completed. A lot of us were excited and already started selecting things we would like to have a go at.

Blog above written by Travis and Joseph

Well done boys! Now to just add in those little reminders.

Homework to be handed in on Monday and be ready for your first spelling test too.

Remember your swimming kits please. If possible could ear-rings be removed, as this helps to speed up things and not lose any lovely ear-rings.

Clubs begin on Monday.

Reading journals being signed off again on Monday. Try to get all five sessions as it leads to rewards.

Thank you for a fun week of learning Class 6. You are all doing an amazing job being buddies. I have had some lovely feedback from Class 1 parents from this morning’s coffee morning. Congratulations to all of the children receiving a reward in Celebration Assembly, it is getting harder to select.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and feel refreshed ready to go next week.

Welcome back! I do hope you have all had a lovely summer and are ready for a jam-packed year of learning. A warm welcome to also some new members of Class 6.

Our lovely new classroom has been the perfect environment to help us learn. It was really exciting to hear Mrs Peddie in Collective Worship on Monday explain to us that we are history makers. The first Class 6 in the 170 years of the school. We also want to thank Mrs Peddie for all our lovely new resources.

We have not wasted time and are straight back in. I’m proud of all the children in a number of ways, they have put in a great deal of effort this week. Some of the children have already welcomed their Class 1 buddies and by the end of next week everyone will have someone. It only seems like yesterday that the Year 6 children were starting.

What have we covered this week?

We have really enjoyed our novel ‘Holes’ by Louis Sacher. It has been quite challenging but we have persevered and have explored a number of Sacher’s writing techniques.

In Maths we have concentrated on place value; in particular with numbers up to 10,000,000.We have also been looking at rounding decimals and have started on our weekly mental maths quizzes.

Our first science lesson on electricity was based around using our learning powers to show what we already know. Having the freedom to present our learning in our own way is something that we are enjoying and can’t wait to start on the new homework grids.

I’m sure your children will also let you know about other lessons we have covered, when chatting over the weekend.

See you all on Monday ready for learning.

Mrs Stewart

Reminders :

Please make sure you have PE kits in school. Swimming starts on Monday the 18th September.